| Method | Steel engraving |
| Artist | Thomas Abiel Prior after Joseph Mallord William Turner |
| Published | D. Appleton, New York, c. 1880 |
| Dimensions | Image 183 x 264 mm, Sheet 195 x 279 mm |
| Notes |
Proof before artists and engravers names. Set within the Garden of the Hesperides, several women are seen tending the golden apple trees. To the right, the Goddess of Discord, Eris, is shown picking an apple. The same apple was later awarded to Aphrodite by Paris, which set the events leading to the Trojan War in motion. Upon a cliff top in the background is the serpent-like dragon Ladon guarding the Garden of the Hesperides. Ladon is later killed by Hercules during the completion of his Eleventh Labour. Thomas Abiel Prior (5th November 1809 - 8th November 1886) was a British line engraver and mezzotint artist, known principally for his engravings after J.M.W. Turner. Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) was a painter and draughtsman who became one of the most celebrated artists Britain would ever produce. He was born near Covent Garden, London, and entered the Royal Academy Schools in December of 1789. The Academy, conscious of his prodigious talent, encouraged and supported Turner. He was elected as an Associate of the RA in 1799, and became a full Academician in 1802. His early oil painting flitted between Netherlandish works in the manner of Cuyp, Ruisdael and Van de Velde; classical landscapes like those of Claude and richard Wilson; and, upon returning from his Parisian visit in 1802, grand historical compositions like those of Poussin and Titian. The development of his idiosyncratic style, commonly held to have been around 1803, led to critical condemnation. His preoccupation with light and colour produced abstract, near vorticistic works, which predated Impressionism, but were hugely controversial in the conformist context of late Georgian and early Victorian England. Whilst some critics accused Turner of extravagance and exaggeration, John Ruskin virulently thwarted these claims in Modern Painters, and championed the artist's fidelity to nature. Ruskin became the main advocate of a new generation of Turner admirers, usually professional, middle class or newly wealthy, who embraced his work for its modernity. An enormously prolific artist, Turner bequeathed over three hundred oils and close to twenty thousand drawings and prints to the nation. His style produced many imitators, but no rivals. Condition: Trimmed. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £130.00 |
| Stock ID | 36347 |